BRASILIA Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Brazilian central bank will
take the necessary measures to bring inflation back to the 4.5
percent target in 2017, a bank director, Altamir Lopes, said on
Thursday.

It is the first time the bank has given a timeframe for
reaching the center of its official target range after it
dropped its outlook to meet this goal late 2016 due to a weaker
Brazilian currency.

Lopes' comments drove Brazilian interest rate futures
<0#2DIJ:> higher on Thursday as traders interpreted them as a
signal that the bank was more willing to raise rates if
inflationary pressures did not subside.

"The central bank will adopt necessary measures to fulfill
our inflation-targeting objectives and bring inflation to the
4.5 percent target in 2017," Lopes said in a briefing about
regional economic performance.

Lopes, the bank's director of economic policy and a voting
board member, said the adjustment of prices, mostly government
administered prices, has been slower than the bank expected.

Still, the bank expects an intense slowdown of prices next
year as service inflation eases.

The central bank has kept interest rates on hold in its last
two policy meetings, signaling borrowing costs will remain
stable for some time as a deepening recession is expected to
drag down prices.

Even with Brazil facing its worst recession in 25 years,
inflation has continued to climb to near 10 percent, the highest
in 12 years.
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Writing by Alonso Soto Editing by
W Simon)